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Chicanery
Chicanery Chicanery is the art of deception and favored by those who utilize guile to lead the unwary astray. This art deals in fooling the senses and ensnaring the mind at higher levels. Practitioners of Chicanery are usually considered suspect by nobles and their chancellors and are closely watched. A few nobles have become infamous through injudicious use of this art, although Chicanery is generally considered to be the commoner's art. Attribute: Manipulation · Fuddle (Changeling: Second Edition, pg. 172) Fuddle allows the caster to alter a target's perceptions. Proper use of this art can be difficult, however since it cannot create something from nothing -- there must always be some basis for the deception the caster wishes to create. In a sense, the caster is limited by the target's perceptions. A target who is blind and deaf cannot be made to suddenly see and hear the ocean, for instance, but she might be fooled into smelling the tang of the salty sea air. Fuddle relies upon already existing factors to deceive the senses, and cannot completely negate a sense or create a sensation. In other words, an eshu trying to make use of Fuddle could not turn invisible while standing in plain sight, nor could he conjure up the sound of police sirens in a silent night. If the eshu were hidden in shadows, he could use Fuddle to cause a person to overlook him, or he could cause the sounds of barking dogs to be perceived as police sirens. This cantrip can never cause any direct harm to an individual, though it is possible for a target to inflict accidental injury upon himself due to his confused senses. System: The target of the cantrip determines the nature of the Realm needed to use this art. The Scene Realm is required to affect multiple targets. For example, casting Fuddle upon a small group of tourists to cause them to believe that a troll has turned into a wolf requires Actor 4 ( mortal tourists ) and Scene 2 ( for the group ). The number of successes indicates how long the subject is Fuddled. Multiple castings of Fuddle are not cumulative; if such is attempted, the casting with the most successes is the one that takes effect. * 1 success -- one minute * 2 successes -- 10 minutes * 3 successes -- one hour * 4 successes -- one day * 5 successes -- one month ·· Veiled Eyes (power has been modified for balance &/or setting) As its name implies, Veiled Eyes muddles a targets senses into ignoring anything the caster desires. The cantrip does not turn an object invisible, but rather convinces the observer that the object is really not worth his notice. Veiled Eyes would not cause a store to vanish from plain sight, but it would convince passersby that the store sold nothing of interest to them, causing them to ignore it. People cloaked with Veiled Eyes are merely ignored. System: The person or object being veiled determines the Realm needed when using this art. This art functions differently than most Chicanery cantrips in that once cast upon an individual or item, the target of the cantrip becomes veiled to all passersby. The Actor realm would be used to veil a mortal, and the Scene realm would be appropriate to veil a building ( though a Scene and Actor could be used to veil an entire room of people, making the room appear to be empty to anyone who entered or looked inside. ) The obscurement lasts for one minute per success. The user may afterwards spend a point of Glamour to extend the duration to the scene, if desired. If multiple persons or objects are to be obscured, this requires the Scene realm, which does require 1 Glamour point be spent as a base. A changeling can penetrate Veiled Eyes by rolling Perception + Kenning (difficulty 4 + the number of successes scored). Only mortals who have had contact or foreknowledge of the veiled object get a chance to resist. Supernatural beings with magic senses (Kenning, Awareness, Auspex, etc. ) may make an attempt to penetrate the obscurement when they first encounter it. This cantrip can be cast multiple times to increase the duration of obscurement. ··· Fugue (power has been modified for balance &/or setting) While fuddle allows a changeling to alter a person's perceptions, fugue lies within the province of memory. With fugue, the changeling may remove or steal whole chapters of a person's life and beliefs, or home in on one salient detail, such as the moment the target bumped into him while walking down the street. Fugue can never add anything to an individual's memory and its effects are rarely permanent. System: A changeling only needs the Realm of the target to cast Fugue. The number of successes determines the duration and amount of memory lost. The caster divides the number of successes between the memory loss and duration, according to the charts below. A changeling who rolls 4 successes could cause her target to forget about his lunch for one minute, a person's identity for one turn, or the location of his car keys for a day. Memory Loss * 1 success -- Forgetting a simple, immediate object or information (car keys, phone number, etc.) * 2 successes -- Loss of memory of an uninteresting scene in the past ("What did I have for lunch?" or "What was her name?") * 3 successes -- Complete eradication of a specific event, person's identity or object's presence * 4 successes -- Powerful, forthright beliefs or memories may be forgotten * 5 successes -- a tabula rasa; total memory loss (a vampire could be made to forget her nature, but finds herself inexplicably craving blood) Duration * 1 success -- one turn * 2 successes -- one minute * 3 successes -- one hour * 4 successes -- one day * 5 successes -- one week Multiple castings of this cantrip are cumulative, such that majorly important memories may be hidden for longer times. Other powers that attempt to restore hidden memories must overcome the successes devoted to the duration or to the importance of the memory, whichever is higher. Every success beyond 5 in duration adds 1 week.' ' ···· Haunted Heart The caster of Haunted Heart can control and fan the emotions of her target. She can evoke any type of feeling she wants: fear, envy, love, gaiety, sadness, etc. This cantrip can cause a target to feel anything he is capable of feeling, even if he has never experienced the desired emotion before. The cantrip is more potent if the emotional evocation is similar to an episode from the target's past. However, the feelings can be drawn from anything: books, movies, observing wildlife, etc. For example, linking a memory of a lost love to a banana could cause the target to weep piteously as he remembers how much his ex-lover used to love bananas. Casting a feeling of spite in a crowded bar would start a bar fight. Old memories ( even those forgotten or blocked ) could reactivate with a canny use of Haunted Heart. Evoking hatred toward policeman in a man wrongly jailed would have a recurring effect well beyond the duration of the cantrip. Provoking a fear of a lake may cause the subject to suddenly remember almost drowning at age six and give the subject a permanent fear of water. Lucky ( or shrewd ) casters who manage to awaken a feeling that is significantly linked to an incident in the target's past get one free success using this cantrip. System: The Realm is needed to cast this cantrip is determined by the target. Actor and Fae realms are by far the most common. This cantrip lasts one minute per success. The duration can be extended by spending one glamour per additional minute. Multiple castings of this cantrip are cumulative, as long as the object and the emotion evoked remain the same. Opposite emotions cast upon the same subject cancel each other, no matter how many successes the casting had. A phobia of snails cast with five successes would be neutralized by a cantrip of mollusk love with one success. * 1 success -- Invokes a mild reaction * 2 successes -- The target feels wild, chaotic surges of intermittent emotions. As long as the emotional object is not in sight, the target acts normally * 3 successes -- Creates a continuous state of passion. The target's conversation drifts towards the emotional object; +1 difficulty to all rolls involving Mental Attributes * 4 successes -- The target is passionately engaged. She actively seeks ( or avoids ) her object of passion; +2 difficulty to all rolls * 5 successes -- Total obsession; the target can do nothing but engage in his passion. He becomes violent if restrained. Resistance requires the expenditure of a willpower point ( and a life threatening reason ) ····· Captive Heart (power has been modified for balance &/or setting) Whereas Haunted Heart controls the emotions, Captive Heart has greater magnitude. The target of Captive Heart becomes pliant to the caster's commands; his personality can be completely changed with a few words. Use of this cantrip allows the changeling to change broad or narrow facets of the person's behavior. A person could be made to believe he is Mick Jagger, a lawn chair or a secret agent for Planet Z. The victim of this cantrip makes every effort to conform to the caster's wishes: jumping around and singing, hopping and croaking, or simply standing quietly in the corner - anything. This has certain limitations, however; the target cannot be commanded to do anything directly harmful to himself. Commands such as "Take this knife and draw it across your throat" will send the target into confusion as her self preservation instinct manifests. On the other hand, a command that is not directly harmful ("See that man in the crown? Attack him!") is obeyed with as much speed as the target can muster. System: The nature of the cantrip's target determines the Realm needed. Only one person can be affected with a single casting of this Art, so the Scene realm cannot be used to affect multiple targets. The number of successes determines how long the cantrip lasts. Captive Heart can be cast multiple times if the caster spends a glamour point for each extra casting, with cumulative success. If two casters use conflicting commands on one target, the cantrip with the most successes overrides the other. Record the total number of successes gained for the cantrip for duration and effect. Whenever the subject must perform an action that runs counter to her personality, she may roll Willpower (difficulty 8, any willpower spent on these rolls count as successes). If the victim ever accumulates more total successes on resistance rolls than the successes gained in casting the cantrip, the cantrip is broken. * 1 success -- the enchantment lasts for one turn * 2 successes -- lasts for one scene * 3 successes -- lasts until sunrise or sunset, whichever comes first * 4 successes -- lasts for 24 hours. * 5 successes -- lasts for 1 week (additional successes add 1 week each)